Battle of Arnhem

Weather forecast for this year F3B Arnhem was correct. It was really cold and cloudy. Saturday we experienced rain for a few hours.

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Earthquake

The only natural phenomenon which I was missing during this weekend at F3B Kirchheim was – earthquake. We experienced everything else i.e. sunshine, black sky, no wind, storm, thunder storm, wind turn by 180° every 30 minutes, deadly sinks, deadly thermals, hail storm, rainbow. Well, I didn’t mention tsunami, but fortunately airfield at  Hulben is about 750m above see level, therefore question is what was going on down there…

Thanks to my limited English vocabulary I will talk only about some important moments from this year F3B Kirchheim. [continue]

Winchline charging batteries

F3B rules says in paragraph 5.3.2.2. Launching,  figure f) The battery must not be charged on the launching line. The motor must not be cooled, and the battery must not be heated.

At F3B Kirchheim I had interesting talk to Michael Wohlfahrt and Thomas Shorb. I was claiming that they are charging batteries on winch line i.e. in space where is all that bloody F3B stuff placed (all boxes, spare lines, tripods  etc.)  Please note that I try to distinguish two different things; launching line and winchline. Bellow I will explain why.

First let’s define what is launching line.  When trying understand the rule it’s narrow space where all winches are placed or fixed to ground. Here you can NOT charge your winch batteries, while you could use it as additional source of power during launch-and this is core meaning of paragraph 5.3.2.2. f)!

Rule says nothing about charging batteries in safety area. Winch line is safety area and therefore you CAN charge there your batteries. Maybe it will be a bit more comfortable to transport one battery (as master source battery) forth and back than all of five, six batteries(?) On the other hand I can imagine one day when people are jumping over sparkling chargers on winch line not even talking about running generators (I know a bit absurd idea).

Norbert Habe

Norbert Habe, author of many HN airfoils, big silent flight guru, died April 11, 2012. I remember long discussions at F3F Donovaly (Slovakia) with Norbert. He was always ready to help or dispute any aspect of model flying. R.I.P.

 

75g/qdm?

Recently just by coincidence I was talking to several friends about wing loading and FAI limits. It was not clear to me how is actually surface area calculated. Searching SC4_Vol_F3_Soaring_12,  SC4_Vol_ABR_12 and asking Tomas Bartovsky about help I found following:

Stinger hints

Some of you just became happy VV Model Stinger owners. I have few hints when setting up this blazing fast F3X toy. I fly Stingers more than year.

Wiring diagram. I use this system since ever in my F3X toys. It's simple, light, space saving and reliable.

F3B 2012 season starts now (updated March 13)

Monday, March 5
Sorry to be delayed with Gator 2012 report. Saturday and Sunday was really hectic. I will report just short notices. Detailed info about  F3B Gator contest you will find at www.gatorf3b.com.